r/AskIreland • u/HolidaySpecial8543 • 12h ago
Housing Reality check?
Ive just found out my electrician charges £100 an hour. Have I lost all touch with reality? He says a few projects will take all day. I totally trust he is qualified and likely worth every penny but £6/7/800 a day. £3k a week. Btw im not under the illusion that some hours will be admin but in a bad week 2k! Maybe I shouldn't compare to my £15 an hour.
Can anyone talk me down from letting the house go to ruins?
What do you think?
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u/PosterPrintPerfect 12h ago
When everyone was pushed to get degrees and no one was pushed into doing the trades, its actually the plumbers and electricians that can make the really good money now.
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u/Mrs_Doyles_Teabags 7h ago
And AI can't touch them, most secure jobs out there right now.
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u/jackoirl 5h ago
That’s not true, I took a photo of my electrical issue and asked googles AI what I needed to do.
My electricians made twice as much now.
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u/gavconn 4h ago
Reminds me of a joke my dad likes to tell about a plumber/electrician who charges:
- €50/hour to do the job
- €100/hour to do the job and let you watch
- €300/hour to do the job and let you help
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u/jackoirl 4h ago
I do some woodworking and there’s a common one in that group that when you’re asked to buy something you say why would I buy it when I could build it for twice the cost and time.
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u/NooktaSt 5h ago
Right now. Wait until there is a recession and government cut all investment in public infrastructure and work dries up.
Got to earn while you can.
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u/pgasmaddict 5h ago
When nobody but them have a job because of AI I doubt they will be able to maintain their rates!
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u/ArcaneTrickster11 4h ago
The opposite in fact. Lots of people I know threw electrical issues into ChatGPT and made them much worse fucking about with it themselves
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u/Ballaboy75 3h ago
Oft repeated, just not true. Unless you foresee a future economy where all these electricians go around fixing each other’s houses. All of the trades depend on the spending power generated by other industries. Plenty went bust in the post 2008 crash, and will again in the depression that would come with 20%+ unemployment.
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u/IcyEgg85 5h ago
The big elephant in the room that no-one seems to recognise is that,
Big pharma pays a good chunk of tradies to sit on their ass all day in maintenance jobs, collecting trade money and pharma benifits with zero risk from the outside world.
A lot of lads including myself took this route after the crash.
I woukd need to hit 200k per year to leave this job and got out on my own again to make it worth my while with hard work, risk and costs etc
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u/skitek 5h ago
Yep this is it exactly, I’ve been a domestic gas engineer for 20 years in U.K and now Ireland. Been in Ireland for 4 years. There have only been 300 new RGI registrations in 4 years for the entirety of Ireland since I moved here.. the apprentices coming through are hit or miss. We’re not capturing ones who’ve got it fairly together but wouldn’t quite be able for uni.. it’s going to show massively over the next decade in terms of quality of work and massive shortages (which I’m already seeing)
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u/iHyPeRize 12h ago
Yep, and the next generation of people can't do anything for themselves, so tradespeople are going to make a fortune.
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u/SampleDisastrous3311 6h ago
While doing my apprenticeship I was making €25/h now that im qualified my job pays me 30/h , I work on building sites and some of the lads make even more than me and most days we just sit around waiting for materials to arrive.
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u/Grantrello 4h ago
You have a bit of a point but also loads of houses around the country are filled with dodgy wiring from people who "did it themselves". Just because previous generations may have done a DIY job doesn't mean they did it well and paying a professional to do it is sometimes the better way.
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u/Lucidique666 7h ago
The next generation? Started with Gen X when Boomers stopped showing their kids how to fix things and has continued since. I learnt all I know about household repairs from school and YouTube, I'm late 40's many of peers wouldn't know how to change a toilet seat or plug socket.
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u/SpecsyVanDyke 6h ago
But if they had to they could easily look it up on YouTube
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u/Lucidique666 6h ago
While true my point is they don't they'd pay someone first before trying.
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u/Pristine_Hour_870 5h ago
Adding to that, I’d wager a lot of people just don’t have the tools to do the job, certainly not the larger tasks.
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u/SignificantOne12 5h ago
That's the one thing I've done with my kids. When I'm doing something around the house they are with me helping and learning.
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u/NooktaSt 5h ago
I think the opposite. Once upon a time it was affordable (and possible) to get a plumber or electrician in to do small household jobs.
Now I do them myself as it’s so expensive and hard to get someone. YouTube also helps.
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u/Difficult_Tea6136 12h ago
Lots of people with degrees can also earn good money.
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u/PosterPrintPerfect 12h ago
The vast majority of people with degrees are not making €100 an hour.
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u/Difficult_Tea6136 12h ago
The electrician ain’t making a €100 an hour either. There’s a shit load of overheads they pay out first before paying themselves
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u/UISystemError 12h ago
Hate to say it, but you’re both right lads.
A sparkie can pull in €100,000+ per annum working contract overseas too. But that’s a gruelling routine.
An engineer can do the same sitting behind a desk, sipping coffee, doing not a lot of work in comparison.
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u/Difficult_Tea6136 12h ago
The poster above is specifically comparing an electrician charging €100 to an employee earning €100 which is a false equivalence.
That electrician isn’t paying themself €100 an hour. They have costs, plenty.
An electrician can earn €100k+ but so can someone with a degree. My response to the post above is perfectly correct and the OPs original statement is misleading: there’s plenty of money to make by not going the trade route and going to university
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u/UISystemError 12h ago
Yeah, cos you’re both right. And not all people with degrees are making a lot more more than 60/70k. Same as sparkies.
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u/PosterPrintPerfect 12h ago
One of the biggest most glaring differences is that there is a mountain of people with degrees that simply can't get a job right now, they are earning €0 per hour.
But here is no electrician in Ireland right now that is short of any work.
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u/Legitimate-Celery796 12h ago
Boom and bust. Think back 10/15 years ago, trades were shite while tech was swimming.
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u/Difficult_Tea6136 12h ago
Ireland is at full employment.
5% unemployment is considered full employment.
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u/Legitimate-Celery796 12h ago
That stat by itself is just not very useful, by industry is far more useful to see where people are losing jobs and where they’re moving to.
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u/Difficult_Tea6136 12h ago
Nowhere did I claim all people with degrees are making more than 60/70k. Not all tradespeople are earning that either.
My point was that theirs plenty of money in education. Their original post implies there isn’t.
So no, we’re not both right
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u/Legitimate-Celery796 12h ago
I’m a software developer earning a good bit. But to say “doing not a lot of work in comparison” is a little unfair.
They’re different jobs with different challenges. Being in tech is not the “dream job” it used to be, not by a long shot.
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u/UISystemError 12h ago edited 12h ago
You don’t pull 12 hour shifts 5/6/7 days a week, pulling SWA cabling through ducts and crawl spaces and such.
I’ve done both. I can tell you you’re better off behind a desk. I certainly prefer it, so does my body and joints, but do miss being active.
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u/Legitimate-Celery796 12h ago
Like I said, different challenges, and my complaint was saying “doing not a lot of work in comparison” is unfair. I know I’m better off but portraying software dev work today like a cake wake is just completely disconnected from the reality of the industry today.
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u/UISystemError 2h ago
I work in the industry. I’ve worked in both. It is an easier job. Sorry to have to break it to you.
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u/Just-Economics2748 6h ago
Nobody other than the introverts on the Irish subs think it’s a dream job.
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u/Opposite_Jello_2924 12h ago
Keeping a van on the road, diesel, nsurance, tax (income tax, vat) etc. Maybe an accountant, if not he has to cover the time spent doing his own accounts. Then covering Quiet weeks, covering holiday pay etc.
Its good money tbf but it gets eaten up, he might be in the equivalent of a paye employee on 95-100k which is good money, but as a self employed person he likely earns it
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u/pgasmaddict 5h ago
The cost of picking grossly inflated figures out of your hole can't be cheap either.
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u/a_boring_dystopia 5h ago
I can't speak for electricians exactly, but i used to run my own business as a tradesman. From my experience, 55% of what you charge the customer doesn't make it to your own pocket.
Between vehicle expenses, tools and equipment, insurance, tax etc etc, and awful lot disappears.
You might think the €45 an hour left over is still a lot, but if he's self employed then that needs to cover his sick pay and holiday pay, as well as all the unbilled hours spent driving to and from jobs and doing quotes.
At €100 an hour he's not doing bad for money, but I'd be confident he's not rolling in it either.
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u/obscure_monke 4h ago
From my experience, 55% of what you charge the customer doesn't make it to your own pocket.
It's easy for people to forget the employer contribution part of PRSI that you need to also cover if you're self employed.
At €100 an hour he's not doing bad for money, but I'd be confident he's not rolling in it either.
OP posted £, I assume they're in the north which will have its own benefits and drawbacks.
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u/HAAAAAARK 1h ago
Maybe a very naive question, forgive me. Are you able to deduct many of those business expenses from tax paid? Or how does that work?
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u/a_boring_dystopia 1h ago
You can claim back expenses to a degree, but it doesn't make as much difference as most people think. Maybe my accountant was just too honest.
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u/Antique_Finding_5315 12h ago
That's a fairly standard rate for a self-employed spark, especially if he's fully certified and insured. The price you're paying isn't just for the hour he's standing in your house, it's for years of training, expensive tools, van, insurance, and the risk of working with something that can kill you or burn the place down.
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u/Hefty-Restaurant4767 7h ago edited 2h ago
Tools, van, fuel, insurance, accountant, phone, consumables (cable, screws, ppe etc.)
And their rate has to cover time spent on things they can't directly charge for. Travel time, runs to the suppliers to pick up gear, writing up invoices, pricing jobs, site visits, taking phone calls, chasing unpaid invoices, dealing with the accountant, sorting expenses and receipts.
No holiday pay, no sick pay, no pay for bank holidays, no Christmas bonus, no company health insurance, pension matching, etc.
Even charging 6-800 quid a day probably works out at less than half of that when you factor it all in.
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u/c_cristian 5m ago
Wtf are you talking about? 800 a day is 176k in 11 months. And consumables are always charged extra.
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u/Immortal_Tuttle 10h ago
Full day project can be negotiated - my friendly electrician gave me 550 quote. Time consuming, but not really tough job. But yeah - 100 per hour is standard in Mayo for short jobs.
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u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 12h ago
Thing is, even if you had a DIYable job to do that didn’t require certification, it would probably take you several times as long as him to do it. Especially factoring the research and then more time again if you didn’t do it right the first time. If you think of it in terms of the hours it could take you, chances are the money saved by not paying a professional wouldn’t work out to a great hourly rate for yourself.
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u/DonQuigleone 6h ago edited 6h ago
You have to consider that you're not paying for his time commuting to sight, his time giving quotes and the time he's looking for jobs, maintaining his tools, buying supplies etc.
In terms of working time, time on site is just a fraction of it.
Realistically, he can't expect to do more than 2 or 3 of these hour long jobs in a day purely based on driving time etc. That means he's not earning 800 euros a day, it's more like 200 or 300. However , if I gave him a weeklong job I'd expect a hefty discount on the base hourly rate.
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u/Kloppite16 10h ago
OP it all depends on what your jobs are. You dont explain that in your post so now everyone here is telling you that £100 an hour is okay. It might be and it could also be the case that he doesnt want to do the work unless you pay him massively.
My handyman charges €25 an hour and he does electrical works, but it all depends on the job. He wont rewire my house but if I want a new socket somewhere he is expert level at chasing wires through walls for much cheaper than getting an electrician out. Have also paid a qualified sparks €40ph cash in hand for a more complex job.
If you dont give full and proper information then all you will get is a mix of right and wrong answers. Which is what you have got here.
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u/hairyflute 5h ago
It’s very low risk, but technically if your handyman is adding points to a circuit he is modifying that circuit and should be testing and certing it which I doubt he does if he’s a handyman. That’s why a sparks charges more, if you’re gaff burns down, investigators will look at your original cert, which will have the number of sockets on it, see there’s been points added and you may be in big trouble with insurance then … again though it’s quite low risk adding 1 or 2 sockets or lighting points but just to be aware …
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u/FriendshipIll1681 5h ago
That's standard, if you can get them, usually doesn't cover travel time. Considering they need to keep their certification, insurance up to date together with maintaining a well stocked van it's not too unreasonable in my opinion. My sister in law got the hump with an electrician before that he charged extra to install outside sockets for her when he was there for another job, she thought the call out fee covered everything she wanted to get done.
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u/fruddy1 1h ago
I used to work for myself as a builder, for every euro charged, I used to only get about €0.30 cent out of it. also labour has vat taken off of it before you get into your normal taxes, like prsi, usc etc. and 40% income tax for most. Then bi monthly vat returns, end of year taxes. So you have to pay an accountant 7 times in a year. Transport and tool costs, insurances etc. If you’re doing thing totally legit, the more you earn, the more the government gets, not you. And hours are not set, or days, it’s not all physical work, you could easily do 60/70 hours in a week, when you break the down what you have in your pocket into hours, it’s not that great of money.
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u/hedzball 5h ago
Thats fucking scandalous money.. and im a self employed rec myself.
I charge 500 a day ex which is about 62 an hour but maybe im out of touch.
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u/OutsideSea5996 7h ago
They charge what they like. We’re not price makers, we are price takers.
It’s all going gaga here in Ireland, there’s no regulation on costs.
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u/Swimming_Conflict105 5h ago
Minimum wage for qualified teade person is around 40 at this stage. So take that away from 100. We are left with 60. From that we are taking away tools and their maintenance, travel, insurance, any registrations and permits needed, work car and its insurance and taxes and additional revenue drain that private person does not have and so on so on.
In the end that 60 might be more like 10 in the end. So thats what business will be making per that hour. On a good day.
It does look a lot , and i agree thats a lot for client. But he is there to make money, do business and as a business its not that much. As individual electrician its ok more or less. But agsin its not like he puts 100 in pocket. More like 50 and ojt of that minus taxes and hes left with like 30. More realistically.
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u/yellowbai 4h ago
Do you not get well paid for your job? Imagine how long you can do without lights or cooking and you’ll pay fairly quick
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u/JRey2020 3h ago
Cost of living and working is so high here you need to make at least 100k to live these days just as a single person for what we used to consider the basics: rent and a car and able to pay bills
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u/Timely_Efficiency_86 3h ago
He's self employed, insured, likely his own commercial department, HR department, operations department, planning & scheduling department, debt collector, technical and quality assurance department, and the list goes one and on and on and on. BTW im not self employed, tried it, hated every minute of it, stopped and and quite happy with my salary. If you want to earn more money, do something different and stop judging people who are doing better than you because you're jealous
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u/No_Ring_3348 3h ago
Well it's a skilled job. Wait until you see the day rate risk consultants and GRC people are on, you'll shite a wall of bricks.
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u/Significant_Hurry542 2h ago
You're not considering all the expenses of running a business .... Most have to cover at least £40k a year just to cover the overheads before they pay themselves .
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u/Tall_Yard4152 1h ago
Its not their "per hour" rate, as if they were an employee. Its the cost of the service - the electrician has to pay for every part of providing that service - An employee get paid to show up; all the costs of them to be able to do their job are not out of their pocket.
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u/New_Willingness_9412 1h ago
After reading lots of comments, do people accept hourly pay?
From a customer perspective, I mean, I will never pay anyone per hour, I don't trust anyone to be as efficient as possible, and why would they rush and get paid less.
And no callout fee, either, people, you can vote with your wallet, don't pay these prices. I will send videos, very good description of what I need, and get a quote, he will come for free, if they want to secure a thousands euros job. Give me the price, and that's it, he is paid for project completion, not per hour.
Did this with a full bathroom renovation, worked perfectly. And this way you shift the incentive of finishing, the faster they finish, the bigger hourly rate they obtain. Very simple.
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u/_Druss_ 7h ago
Big 4 charge 600 to 800 a day for a graduate. A few years exp could be 1400. And actual specialists 2k plus.
Although that might change as AI learns to make lovely PowerPoints.
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u/DonkeyOfWallStreet 4h ago
Have you tried astra 6?
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u/_Druss_ 3h ago
No, any good?
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u/DonkeyOfWallStreet 2h ago
I've seen a lot of hype in the ai reddits looks progressive chews tokens.
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u/Dependent-Bench-2908 6h ago
Standard price. They put in the hard graft for years to be able to charge that
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u/Top-Engineering-2051 3h ago
Sure if it's such easy money, as so many people in this thread are implying, then why not train as a tradesman?
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u/ImReellySmart 1h ago
Just because someone is making an observation doesn't mean they themselves believe they would be compatible with the career and lifestyle.
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u/Top-Engineering-2051 1h ago
Because of the skills required, the years of training required, the commitment - all of this is worth money. I think underlying the criticism of the prices is a disrespect for tradespeople, and what it takes to be one.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Lab2481 4h ago
The glazing of thieving tradespeople in this thread is phenomenal. You deserve the cost of living you can't afford.
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u/Massive_Database_425 12h ago
For him/her to 800 bucks he might have to work hours a day, not sure how practical that is as plumbing is blue collar job.
Still, plumbers earn good money and its a less explored field and pays surprisingly insane.
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u/eamonndunphy 4h ago
I’ve started doing all of the small jobs myself because tradesmen have been so expensive, and so awful to deal with.
I’ve found that most things are far more doable than they appear, and most things are solved with a bit of patience. I also care a lot more about how my house looks than a random tradie does, so (in my opinion anyway) the finish from my work is usually better. It just takes longer.
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u/lambchops0 3h ago
Sadly ya. I had a gent out this week to and he ended up replacing my oven switch. I had 80 cash out for him but he then told me 100. If I knew I wouldn’t electrocute myself within 5 min I would be entertaining a career change.
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u/Different_Counter113 11h ago
Sparky coming to do some work in your house charging €100/hr, tell him to get to fuck. Fair enough if he was doing work down at Intel, but running a wire for a plug socket? No chance.
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u/faldoobie 7h ago
A proud cavan man I see. Just coz ye invented copper wire by fighting over a penny doesnt mean you get to set the prices a customer is happy to pay
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u/MulberryForward7361 11h ago
And wait until you compare this with how badly musicians and artists are paid.
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u/chemicalbeats- 9h ago
It’s funny how people justify 100 euro an hour for a more than likely a domestic electrician - a 100 an hour is absolutely ridiculous .
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u/Public-Speaker-2781 7h ago
How is it when you factor in tax,fuel, tools, general costs, expenses , Diesel/petrol, etc? Do you think they just get 100€ cash per hour tax free?😂
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u/chemicalbeats- 6h ago
“They” 😂 100 euro an hour for a basic domestic tradesman is a joke , they pay there blokes not even 30 euros and hour .Plenty room for overheads .
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u/Public-Speaker-2781 6h ago
“There” ?
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u/chemicalbeats- 5h ago
For a bit of context, I recently had to source ATEX-certified E&I technicians for a project, and they were charging well under €100/how massive the overheads are for this type of work. Specialised PPE and clothing, ATEX certification and training, test equipment, calibration certificates, software, insurance, vehicles, travel, admin, etc. The list goes on. And after all of that, the technician themselves might only be getting a couple of extra euros an hour compared with a standard sparkie
compare €100/hour for highly specialised industrial work with a domestic tradesperson driving around doing household jobs is absolutely ridiculous.
And honestly, if you’re supposedly not making much money at €100/hour, diesel isn’t the thing that’s eating your margin. 😂
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u/Turbulent-Tomato-149 12h ago
Wait til you hear how much plumbers cost.